10 Films To Watch at S16 Film Festival

The Surreal 16 Collective-curated film festival, S16 Film Festival is in its fifth edition and deciding which films to watch, as a festival attendee, is top priority. The festival which has programmed and screened some of the rare-to-find Nigerian and African films is scheduled to hold from 1st to 5th December, 2025. Organized by Abba T. Makama, C.J. “Fiery” Obasi and Michael Omonua is a space dedicated to Nigerian and African filmmakers whose artistic voice, language and thematic and subject focus stray outside the mainstream-approved one. 

The year’s festival has announced its in and out-of-competition short films vying for the debut African Film Press Critics Prize. As we approach this year’s edition of the festival, which includes short and feature length Nigerian and non-Nigerian titles, Culture Custodian has curated a list of ten films to look forward to. 

Here are 10 films we believe festival attendees should watch at the festival.

Cotton Queen

Cotton Queen is Suzannah Mirghani’s directorial debut feature and widely reported as the first fiction feature film written and directed by a Sudanese woman. The film has been encountered by international audiences at various festivals. 

Memory of Princess Mumbi

The Swiss-Kenyan director, Damien Hauser’s The Memory of Princess Mumbi is a groundbreaking Swiss-Kenyan sci-fi romance mockumentary set in the year 2093 in a fictional African kingdom called Umata, following a devastating “Great War” of the 2070s that led to a ban on modern technology. The story follows Kuve, an aspiring filmmaker who travels to the region to document the post-war recovery, but finds peace instead of despair. He meets Mumbi, an aspiring actress and the titular princess, who challenges him to make his film without using artificial intelligence, which sparks a creative and romantic love triangle with a local prince. 

My Jebba Story 

Nigerian director and cinematographer, Kagho Idhebor is a celebrated filmmaker known for his independent projects. My Jebba Story is set in the heart of Ebute Metta, Lagos and follows a deeply personal visual story reflecting on the years the filmmaker spent living on Jebba Street after film school. Told through his archival footage and narrated memories, it serves as a tribute to the place that helped shape him, capturing the beauty, chaos, and quiet humanity of everyday life, and the unforgettable characters who left a lasting mark on his journey as a storyteller.

Second Wind

Celestina Aleobua and Sochina Nwakaeze’s Second Wind, which follows the story of Tebogo, a gifted but emotionally fractured university student who embarks on a tense drive with her former classmate and abuser, Antoine. As the road unfolds through a quiet countryside, so does the weight of Tebogo’s trauma. The confrontation that ensues is not only between two people, but between the person she once was and the woman she’s fighting to become. Set against the haunting backdrop of a wind-turbine farm, Second Wind explores themes of memory, courage, and healing—inviting audiences into an intimate portrayal of survival and reclaiming one’s voice.

Obi is a Boy

Dika Ofoma‘s latest short film, Obi is a Boy follows a femme-presenting young man who returns home for his mother’s funeral and has to navigate the violence and gender expectations that have shaped his fractured relationship with his father and his place in the community.

Òdè! There Is No Bus Stop On This Trip 

Donald Tombia‘s short film sees Ejikeme, a struggling artist who borrows money from a shady loan app to give his girlfriend, Akumjeli, a dream birthday. They party hard with music, drugs, booze and sex, and trip harder, laughing their way into a psychedelic trip, until reality crashes in the form of debt collectors under the appearances of a Masquerade, a Babaláwo, and a rooster. What follows is a surreal and satirical descent into Nigeria’s failing economy and financial underworld, where dreams are collateral and love is just another expense.

70 X 70

Chimeka Osuagwu’s 70 x 70 centers the story of a woman’s conversation with a priest who questions her recent change in temperament after exhibiting a string of antisocial behaviour. During the conversation, she reveals that she has reached her biblical quota for forgiveness, a revelation that both shocks and fascinates the priest, sparking a debate about the nature of tolerance and the limits of grace.

Morning, Morning 

Gozirimuu Obinna is an artist, filmmaker, and musician based in Port-Harcourt. Morning, Morning is his second film project after Rendezvous. In Morning, Morning in a man’s dream, he lies asleep on a bed when a woman crawls up beside him. A woman wakes him with a kiss and attempts to seduce him, but he resists her advances. The two sit in silence, staring at each other. Moments later, he awakens in bed to find sunlight shining on his face. 

Mother

Olamide Adio and Victor Daniel’s Mother follows Omowunmi, a spirited young tailor, who is caught between the early stirrings of an unplanned pregnancy with her lover, Sanni, and the quiet obligation of caring for her father, still broken a year after his wife’s death. What begins as an ordinary day spirals into a haunting revelation, as the line between sacrifice and trauma dissolves.

Traces of The Sun

Rete Poki’s Traces of the Sun asks a poignant question: what does it mean to be loved in Nigeria? Against the backdrop of generational systemic misogynoir, Rete Poki asks a diverse group of women and non-binary people, how their experiences with family, friends and romantic partners have come to define their expectations for healthy interpersonal relationships. Poki is a Nigerian producer, director and screenwriter whose films have been selected for and screened at the S16 Film festival, Mostra de Cinemas Africanos, SoleDXB, Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival, and the Ibadan Indie Film Festival (IFA.)